


What I Love Most

by ReaperShadCat



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Drabble, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-27
Updated: 2012-12-27
Packaged: 2017-11-22 16:17:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/611766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReaperShadCat/pseuds/ReaperShadCat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Small drabble in which Danny asks his father about something he has made.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What I Love Most

They were at it again. Every day they seemed to have a brand new invention, one that they decided to bring to the breakfast table and describe in detail how it worked. Almost all of them were designed with the intent to hunt and harm ghosts, and the ones that weren't still seemed to do me harm. It was hard to hear them every day, talking about how much they wanted to destroy ghosts, how much they pined to capture one and tear it to ribbons in the name of science.

It made me feel sick to my stomach. Every day, they flaunted their constant enthusiasm for their ghost-maiming inventions. Every day they rambled about how horrible and terrifying and despicable ghosts were - especially that ghost kid, Danny Phantom. What a nuisance, they would always say. Dangerous, deadly, evil.

I shouldn't have let it bother me, but it did. They didn't realize that they were calling me these things to my face, but the fact was that they were. They called me violent and they called me a criminal. They called me putrid and they expressed their hunger to trap me in a cage and slice open my skin. Constantly they put me down, no matter how much I did to protect them.

I was pretty sure I couldn't ever tell them the truth. They wouldn't love me any more. How could they? All they ever did was talk about my supposed villainy. All I was to them was a monster who was sure to snap and attack them at any given moment.

One day at breakfast, however, my dad was working on something different. He had been working on it for a while, but I hadn't ever noticed what it was until now.

He sat hunched over a small cloth, multicolored yarn and needles in his hands, diligently working on a design that he himself had made. It was a small, round cross-stitching panel, one that he wanted to hang on the wall when he was done with it.

I was curious as to what it said.

"Hey, Dad, whatcha working on over there?" I asked, playing with my cereal.

"Oh, this?" He said with an elated grin, one that he usually reserved for when asked about his weaponry. "Why, take a look for yourself, son!"

He held it out to me, and I took it, examining the embroidery. There was a small, smiling green cartoony ghost, and a line of text above it:

"I Love Ghosts!"

"'I love ghosts'?" I asked, confused.

He smiled as I handed it back to him. "Of course, Danny!"

"I thought you hated ghosts," I mumbled, more to myself than anything.

"Me? Hate ghosts?" He looked offended. "Son, there are only three things I love more than ghosts, and all of them have the last name 'Fenton'!"

I shrugged. "But you always talk about destroying them and stuff. You love them, but you want to hurt them?"

A look of mild distress came over his face, and he spoke with a serious tone to his voice. "I don't want to hurt them," he said softly, "I want to learn more about them. I love ghosts, Danny. They're my passion - I love ghost-hunting, yes, but... That's not all that I love. What I love most, son, are the ghosts themselves. How they work, how they act, how they come to be... Sure, most of 'em are evil little suckers, but that doesn't stop me from loving them. I mean, they're so... cool! Your mother and I hunt them to protect people and to learn more about them. The more we learn, the more we can protect everyone from the really scary ones! The more we learn about them..." He smiled the smile of someone whose heart had been captured by something they enjoyed. "...the more and more I love them. They're my favorite things in the whole world! ...other than my family, of course."

I smiled.

"Hey, Dad... This is a weird question, but... do you love Danny Phantom?"

"Son, I tell you. Phantom might be a nuisance to this city and a danger to its citizens, but... why, he's the coolest of them all. I wish we could learn more about him! He's so elusive, only showing up when there are other ghosts around... and he's powerful, too! Oh, I just love hearing about him. He may be evil, but he's my favorite!" He held his cross-stitching in front of him. "I love ghosts. And he's a ghost, so.. I guess I do love him. Not the same way I love you, of course, but I love him the way you love the stars. So fascinating, so hard to reach... cold, maybe, but full of secrets and answers to the universe. Just like we know so much about space just from the tiny bit that we can see, we know so much about ghosts just from those few glimpses we get of them. Stars and spirits, they both hold the answers to the universe. I may not have the same love of astronomy as you, but I know what it feels like to love something like that."

I smiled, staring down at my cereal, the milk and sugar swirling together, like a galaxy.. or maybe like the portal in our basement. Maybe there wasn't much of a difference?

"Do you really think Danny Phantom holds the secrets to the universe?" I wondered aloud.

"I know he does!" My dad said. "One day, we're going to learn everything there is to know about Phantom, and once we do, we'll know more about the world, and therefore, ourselves." He sighed happily. "Less than a year ago, no one believed that they existed, but here they are - spirits of the dead, walking amongst the living! How cool is that? Ghosts are so fascinating. I really, really do love them, son, all of them."

"Even the scary ones? Even the menaces to society?"

"Even them."

That night, the family watched TV together while eating dinner, and my parents rambled and ranted on about Phantom's newest mischief. He had gotten into a fight with a ghost and in the process destroyed a local bakery! What atrocious behavior! What a despicable, malevolent ghost that Phantom was, destroying everything in his path!

But I watched their faces as they spoke, and I didn't see a speck of hatred. They were almost having fun, it seemed. They liked this. They liked marveling over Phantom's power, over his childishness, over his actions. They enjoyed him. Even if they thought he was up to no good, they were enamored with him. He was their passion.

I couldn't stop smiling.

My parents loved Danny Phantom.

And I loved them back.


End file.
